Recent Columns

The Pilgrims landed on the shores of North America, not Africa, which is one reason we’re having chicken and lasagna for our Thanksgiving dinner in Uganda this evening. No, there is no Thanksgiving in this country, except for Canadian expatriates who make due with what happens to be available. In this case, regardless of what […]

Rex Murphy called the other day. Then he interviewed My Bride for CBC’s Cross Country Check-Up. Wanted her on-air from Africa to talk about something called Ebola. Hmm. If you missed it, here’s the show. + When Rex said bye, he also made the remark, on-air as far as I could tell, that Jean practices what she preaches. That’s true. […]

(The UCU Standard - Monday, September 29, 2014) MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ The problem with university life is that it can bypass your heart and feed your mind directly with foolish notions about the work world, namely that some grand career will make you a personally large being. “Hey, look at me! I have this job now. It’s who I am!” And maybe you’ll win much of that war that’s so well-known around the world, that is the war to get ahead.

Before My Babe came into my picture I had a dating life and, of course, she had also dated some guys before I sort of tripped into her world. (In fact sometime after the fact, My Babe told me that the wedding she had asked me to attend with her, the key date that changed […]

(The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday, September 27, 2014) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Back in Africa, I’m not overly worried about Ebola on the other side of the continent or even al-Shabab terror cells like the one just busted in a slum here in Uganda’s capital – 19 Somalian suspects were arrested. I’m worried more about my underwear. They could soon all be taken by my daughter and her cats.

Liz continues to do her best to teach her cats how to do new tricks … and take my underwear in the process. If you missed it in the Hamilton Spectator the other day, here’s the news on all this here or below. + PDF Version (The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, September 27, 2014) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Back in […]

It was ‘good-bye mommy!’ and ‘good-bye daddy!’ this morning with all the waves and smiles while bus after bus rolled out of the school parking lot. Hundreds of kids went one place or another, this direction and that into the Ugandan countryside – it can be strikingly beautiful – on several class trips. Our own three […]

I don’t know. All this talk about sex and my manhood. It started when this post simply shared our updated family photo and the news that while the Family Dog is now in our annual shot, our family won’t get larger because I’ve had the snip-snip, that is a vasectomy. My Obstetrician Babe gave her […]

We’re around the breakfast table and the kids are bragging about how old they are, that is how mature and experienced and all that. Liz makes the point she’s in Year 7 now, which, in their international school in Uganda actually means high school. The other two aren’t far behind. Which brings the table conversation […]

Finally, to add to what started with this one and complete this trilogy of posts this week on the news that 19 Somalis were just arrested in Kampala for allegedly plotting to blow some unknown place to Kingdom Come, the only other note to add is that one hopes that jails in Uganda are more secure than jails in Yemen. Yemen, of course, is […]

Since it’s fresh on my mind from  yesterday’s note on the Somalis thrown into a Kampala jail for allegedly plotting a terror attack around here, I should add that I’ve had my own experience with a Ugandan jail. To speak with a certain investigating police officer, Joseph, I was once a visitor at a local precinct after my vehicle was […]

So, a bunch of Somalis in a slum not far from here apparently wanted to blow something up, something big if they had it their way, which has happened in this corner of the world before. You’ll recall what happened in Nairobi right around this time last year. (And if you’ve forgotten, read this, how a day of shopping turned […]

We’re at it again, hockey in Africa, and it’s with sadness and regret that I have to report that the other evening the girls, that is Mom and Liz and Hannah, beat the boys, that is Jon and myself, by a lone goal scored in a sort of overtime only because the girls had a FOURTH player […]

We left last time talking about pregnancy and birth and all that, especially at certain universities in Uganda. (Which brings me to this brief conversation between Hannah and Mom at the hospital just before we left Canada recently.) Mom: It was a busy night. We had 11 deliveries. We even had twins. One boy and one girl. […]

A recent conversation with my eldest. Liz: Daddy, do you like my high heels? Me: No. They’ll give you a bad back. Liz: But Daddy, I’m growing up. Me: You’re barely out of the womb. + This brings us to The Cat. Faithful Reader knows enough about this playboy animal. He has a history here in our Ugandan […]